The late US VP Dick Cheney, who passed away at the age of 84, was seen as among the most significant incumbents of that office in American history. Although numerous vice-presidents were limited to peripheral or figurehead positions, Cheney wielded substantial sway during the term of George W Bush, to the point that he was often described as the "real president".
Bush objected to that description and stated the dynamic was more complicated. He noted that Cheney was courteous, consistently referring to him in public settings as President, while he referred to him as Dick. Bush disputed even characterisations of their relationship as a team because it suggested that they were peers. Despite such protestations, Cheney considered the relaxed president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
A Post-9/11 Era
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been participating in a session at a educational institution in Florida. While Bush traveled to a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, directing the shooting down of any non-communicating aircraft heading toward the US Capitol.
Cheney claimed the attacks altered his perspective, making him become determined on retaliation. In conjunction with other neo-cons, like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he campaigned for a occupation of Afghanistan in an effort to apprehend Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the armed intervention of Iraq, even though there was insufficient indication of Saddam Hussein playing a role.
Disputed Policies
He voiced no apologies about the military campaign, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis died, and not about the waterboarding of detainees rounded up after 9/11. He stated to CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was based on inaccurate intelligence echoed by Cheney, was the correct path to take. "It proved to be the right thing to do at that time. I believed it then and I hold that view today."
Yet even then, there were dissenting voices at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the administration's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the post. "I observed, as a baseline," he subsequently stated "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: in the worst case, lying, ineptitude, and graft."
Wider Perspective
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a memorandum setting out situations in which American interests might be compromised (including "access to essential resources, primarily Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the United States should be positioned to act independently when joint efforts cannot be arranged," particularly mentioning defense operations against Iraq.
Bush additionally had arrived in the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his predecessor had specifically avoided to do in 1991; remove Saddam. After he had been fired by the administration, the finance chief Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the first meeting of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his plan of diminishing America's engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mooted military action against Iraq.
Bush bore a personal grudge against Saddam, thinking he had been responsible for a conspiracy to murder his father, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He also objected to that one of the most prominent establishments in Baghdad had a surface artwork with a likeness of his father's countenance that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
Yet it was Cheney who was one of the most vehement advocating striking Iraq, frequently referencing intelligence reports that were either insubstantial or entirely misleading. He backed what the Bush White House indirectly described as "advanced techniques", the application of interrogation method and physical pressure.
Responding to a Senate report in 2014 that determined that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We requested [the CIA] to implement measures and establish procedures to apprehend the individuals who took the lives of 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it never happened again. That's exactly what they did and they deserve a lot of recognition."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in monikers assigned to him by detractors such as the dark character and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a sinister influence manipulating Bush. In Peter Baker's 2013 volume about the pair, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is cited as commenting: "Do I represent the sinister strategist in the shadows that remains unseen come out of his hole? That is a nice way to work, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Controversy over his corporate affiliations followed him through his period as second-in-command. Although he had limited background in corporate affairs but strong connections in military, especially in Saudi Arabia, he was asked to become part of Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum corporations, in 1995 as leader and CEO.
In 2000 he was selected as Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Debatably, during the Iraq war, Halliburton was awarded US deals totaling billions.
It made him rich. His yearly earnings during his period at the company increased from his previous salary while Pentagon chief to millions. When he departed in 2000 he had a severance arrangement valued at more than $20m|twenty
